Regulated Media - MY ARSE

The Online Safety Bill. Some people find it difficult to talk about; others find it increasingly difficult to do. And very firmly in the latter category is our free and fearless press which, let us not drive this one around the houses for too long, has taken one look at the idea of outlawing the publication of misinformation, realised that this would stop much of its output stone dead, and so has decided to lobby vigorously for special treatment.

Whether it’s the shameless promotion of Covid-19 “sceptics”, as with the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph promoting the rantings of Allison Pearson, the idea that alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson making claims about the prosecution of Jimmy Savile (or lack thereof) had nothing to do with a recent mobbing of Labour leader Keir Starmer, or the Mail still pushing climate change denial by railing against Net Zero carbon targets, the pushing of press misinformation is relentless.

Most of the Fourth Estate is bang to rights on the issue. So, at first, this looked like a difficult one to argue. But a combination of reminding the Government just who is keeping them in power - clue: not Bozo’s skill or his ministers’ abilities - and blatant taking of the piss has done the trick. They get let off because they are REGULATED!

Leaving aside for a moment that IPSO, the press regulator that effectively isn’t, has shown that it couldn’t regulate its way out of a paper bag, Press Gazette has taken this lobbying success very seriously indeed. “New criminal offences to combat offensive communications such as harmful Covid-19 disinformation will have a built-in exemption for the press as part of the Online Safety Bill, the Government has said” they have reported.

There was more. “The Government said none of the three new offences, covering harm, falsehoods and threats, will apply to ‘regulated media such as print and online journalism, TV, radio and film’”. And who broke the news? “Chris Philp, minister for tech and the digital economy, announced the exemption for the press to MPs on Friday”.

Philp demonstrated his commitment to social distancing - as in distancing himself from reality - by claiming “Whilst we do not expect the new offences will capture communication made by the media, including this press exemption demonstrates the Government’s commitment to upholding media freedom”. Does he never read a newspaper?

The legal director of the News Media Association - effectively the press’ trade body - was also taking the piss, asserting “A strong, robust and workable press exemption is necessary to ensure that journalists can continue to carry out their vital role effectively when these new offences come into force”. Maybe she doesn’t read the papers, either.

But what is clear is who is really being targeted. After telling readers that new additions to the bill “include revenge porn, hate crime, fraud, the sale of illegal drugs or weapons, the promotion or facilitation of suicide, people smuggling and sexual exploitation”, we learn “Tech giants will be told they must proactively prevent people from being exposed to such content, potentially with automated or human content moderation, whereas before the bill said only that they must take it down after it had been reported by users”.

This bill protects the Tories’ press pals, while beating up on those who might let the real world intrude. Another day, another lurch towards authoritarianism. Be yet more afraid.

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